man on Tarawa was called Tabuki-n-Tarawa (Eminence-of-Tarawa), and his wife was Nei Baia.
§4. When Tarawa was finished, he made the land of Beru[1] with its people. Tabu-ariki was the first man of Beru, and his wife was Nei Teiti. . . .[2]
§5. Then Na Arean lay with that woman of the south, Nei Aro-maiaki;[3] he begot children on her: the breed of spirits of the south, a multitude of Ancestors. And the eldest ancestor was Te I-Matang. . . .
[Here, in the native text, follows a genealogy, interpolated with historic comments, which traces the line of Te I-Matang down to those descendants who migrated to the Gilbert Islands from Samoa, and gives an excellent, though short, account of their arrival in Micronesia.]
§6. Now the Tree of Samoa was a marvellous tree. It was an ancestor, for people grew upon it, and they were called the breed of Samoa (te bu-u Tamoa). This was the manner of that Tree: it sprang from the spine of Na Atību, the father of Na Arean, when he died. . . .[4] The spine was buried in Samoa. Behold, it became that Tree Kai-n-tiku-aba, whose right side was the northern solstice (te au-meang), and whose left side was the southern solstice (te au-maiaki).
[Here again follow genealogical details. The names of the ancestors who grew from the various parts of the Tree are given, and their lines, intermarriages, etc., are traced down to those personages who led the migration from Samoa to the Gilbert Islands.]
§7. When Na Arean had lain with Nei Aro-maiaki, he
- ↑ Beru. An atoll of the S. Gilberts, whence this text was obtained.
- ↑ The dots indicate the omission of a mass of local allusions.
- ↑ Nei Aro-maiaki. See Na Arean's death-chant to Na Atību above.
- ↑ Omitted here, a recapitulation of the elements which were created from the brain, flesh and eyes of Na Atību, as related above.
